“If you like piña coladas…and are not much into health foods,” then you’ll love piña colada macarons! We flavored basic macaron shells with desiccated coconut and coconut extract and then tempered its sweetness with pineapple cream cheese for a perfect piña colada cocktail cookie. “Escape” and indulge in this great summertime snack. These macarons are a terrific tropical treat for a non-alcoholic National Piña Colada Day!
In a food processor, grind together the almond flour/meal, powdered sugar and desiccated coconut. Sift to remove any lumps. Make a simple syrup to stabilize the egg whites by boiling the sugar and water together until it reaches a temperature of 245 degrees F on a candy thermometer (or until it reaches a soft ball stage).
Whip the egg whites until peaks form. Pour the simple syrup into the beaten egg whites and whip again until stiff and glossy. Stir in the almond flour/meal-sugar-coconut mix until the consistency “flows like magma.”
Fill a pastry bag with a large round tip. Pipe one-inch discs on a parchment paper on top of an insulated baking sheet. Let the discs air dry to develop a thin skin for at least 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated oven at 300 degrees F for about 15 minutes. Watch the “feet” develop, but be careful not to brown or burn the macarons.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Peel off the macarons from the parchment paper. Sort by size and match pairs. Spread the pineapple cream cheese on one of the macarons and sandwich with another. Refrigerate to set the filling. Serve chilled like the cocktail itself.
Notes
See the lyrics of and listen to “Escape (The Piña Colada Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes on YouTube.
We bought the desiccated coconut from the About Australia online store.
America is experiencing a freak heat wave this summer. Temperatures are at a record high, even in the northern part of the country (it is even more sweltering in southwest Texas where we live!). Time to cool off with ice cream—better yet with ice cream AND macarons or ice cream macarons!
But with so many ice cream flavors to choose from, how can we please the palates of finicky family and friends? Neapolitan ice cream has three popular flavors conveniently packed into one tub: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. So at least one of those should satisfy their taste buds.
Our tri-flavored/tri-colored macarons are inspired by the freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream that Islander is always crazy enough to buy whenever she visits the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The amusing “astronaut ice cream” is crisp and creamy—almost like a macaron!
We filled our chocolate and strawberry macaron shells with real vanilla ice cream (but with a special lactose-free brand because of Islander’s delicate digestive system) and, as a non-melting alternate filling, with Tahitian vanilla buttercream for a brown-white-pink palette. These Neapolitan ice cream macarons are our entry into this month’s MacAttack challenge with the “ice cream dream theme.” And they are a sweet treat to beat the heat and celebrate National Ice Cream Month in July!
Make the chocolate and strawberry macaron shells. Match by size and pair a chocolate with a strawberry macaron shell. Quickly spread vanilla ice cream on one of the shells and sandwich with another. Freeze immediately to firm up the filling. Serve chilled.
Alternatively, generously fill a chocolate macaron shell with vanilla buttercream and sandwich with a strawberry macaron shell. Refrigerate to set.
Notes
Look at the list of the 15 most popular ice cream flavors on the Food Channel site. Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry and Neapolitan are in the top five, according to the International Ice Cream Association.
There are other flavors of the freeze-dried ice cream, including mint chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip. A freeze-dried ice cream sandwich is also available.
Try our lactose-free vanilla milkshake recipe on June 20 (National Vanilla Milkshake Day). Search our blog for other recipes containing ice cream.
The final photo above shows our Neapolitan macarons filled with Tahitian vanilla buttercream. It was too hot to fill and photograph the shells with the vanilla Lactaid ice cream on yet another scorching summer day in southwest Texas!!!
Islander’s Daddy is like “Princess Pupule,” the muse of the tacky tourist Hawaiian song of the same title, when his papaya trees bear a lot of fruit. Listen to the first few lines of the lyrics:
Princess Pupule has plenty papayas
She loves to give them away
And all of the neighbors they say
Oh me-ya oh my-ya you really should try-ya
A little piece of the Princess Pupule’s papayas…..
Yes, the sensually suggestive song sounds so pupule (crazy)!
Daddy had planted two papaya trees in the front yard (he once had a tall one growing on the other side of the house but that got uprooted during a hurricane). They produce “plenty papayas” when in season so he is generous when sharing them with the neighbors, co-workers and friends—which is a good thing because Islander, her brother Kahuna and Mommy just get sick of eating the fruit for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacktime every single summer day!!!
Now that Islander lives on the mainland, she misses the fresh fruits from the variety of trees growing on the grounds of her childhood home in Hawaii.
National Papaya Month gave her an opportunity to make macarons with a fruity flavor (also the theme of MacAttack challenge #20). So Islander puréed papaya to make a tropical-tasting buttercream and placed dried papaya pieces in the filling between basic macaron shells. These papaya macarons are deliciously unique and exotic. But since there are only Highlander and Islander in the house right now, like “Princess Pupule,” we have “plenty papaya” macarons and we like to give them away to share our aloha!
Recipe
For the basic macarons (Italian meringue method)
1 cup almond flour/meal
1 cup powdered sugar
3 egg whites (fresh, unpasteurized and aged overnight at room temperature)
orange and yellow food coloring (we used Wilton brand orange concentrated gel icing color and AmeriColor brand yellow soft gel paste)
Directions
Sift the almond flour/meal with the powdered sugar. Grind in a food processor in batches to remove any lumps (optional). Whip the egg whites until peaks form. Make a simple syrup to stabilize the egg whites by boiling the sugar and water together until it reaches a temperature of 245 degrees F on a candy thermometer (or until it reaches a soft ball stage).
Pour into the egg whites and whip again until stiff and glossy. Mix in the vanilla. Fold in the almond flour/meal-sugar until the consistency “flows like magma.”
Tint the macaronage with orange and yellow to make a “papaya” shade. Pipe one-inch discs on a parchment paper on top of an insulated baking sheet. Let the discs air dry to develop a thin skin for at least 30 minutes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 300 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes. Watch the “feet” develop, but be careful not to brown or burn the macarons. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Peel off the macarons from the parchment paper. Sort by size and match pairs. Make the papaya purée buttercream filling.
For the papaya purée buttercream
2 tablespoons papaya puree
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened
pinch of salt
1 ½ – 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
dried papaya chunks, chopped into ¼-inch bits
Directions
Slice a papaya in half and reserve the seeds for another recipe. Scoop out the fruit into a blender and purée the papaya (alternatively, if the fruit is soft and ripe, mash into a strainer over a container). In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with a pinch of salt. Gradually blend in the powdered sugar until well combined and fluffy.
Mix in a tablespoon at a time the papaya purée. Add a little more powdered sugar to the mix to reach a spreadable consistency. Refrigerate if necessary to firm up the filling. Meanwhile, chop up the dried papaya chunks into tiny bits, about ¼ inch.
Put the filling in a pastry bag outfitted with a large round tip. Pipe out the filling on the underside of one macaron shell. Gently press dried papaya pieces on the filling and sandwich the macarons together. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the filling set. Bring to room temperature before serving.
Notes
We might sound biased, but Hawaiian papayas are much sweeter and more flavorful than all the other varieties of papayas we have tasted!
Read historical notes about the song, “Princess Pupule,” and see more lyrics from the Square One website.
Save the seeds! Make a salad dressing. See our blog recipe post for Papaya Seed Dressing.
June is also National Mango Month. See our blog recipe post for Mango Cake inspired by another Hawaiian song, “Drop, Baby, Drop.”
Mahalo (thank you) to Mommy for taking pictures of Daddy’s papaya trees and fruits.
Mahalo to Lisa L. for the vanilla from the Big Island of Hawaii.
Mahalo to Jamie S. and Deeba R. for hosting this month’s MacAttack challenge. See all the “fruits of our labor” and more macarons contributed by talented chefs on their MacTweets blog.
Dia duit and aloha. Failte and
e komo mai. Greetings and welcome to HI Cookery! Highlander and Islander (HI) are gradually building this blog by attempting to "cook the calendar" with ethnic and eclectic recipes.
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